Amidst high security, Odisha goes to polls in 5 Lok Sabha,35 Assembly seats

Bhubaneswar: Under the cover of high security and deployment of 102 Central Armed Police Forces (CAPF), Odisha will go to polls on Monday in five Lok Sabha and 35 Assembly seats to decide the fate of 305 candidates.

The state witnessed pre-poll violence at Khallikote on May 15 in which one BJP worker was killed and three others seriously injured. The state government had already ordered a SIT probe into the poll violence.

Besides, the murder of a BJP-supported youth, Berhampur BJP Lok Sabha candidate Dr.Pradeep Panigrahi was also assaulted seriously. He has since been admitted to the AIIMS, Bhubaneswar and has undergone surgery.

In the first phase of elections to four Lok Sabha and 28 assembly seats about 75.68 per cent voters had exercised their franchise on May 13 last to seal the fate of 37 Lok Sabha and 243 Assembly candidates.

Odisha Chief Electoral Officer N B Dhal said a little over 79.62 lakh voters would exercise their franchise over 9148 polling booths, to elect five Lok Sabha candidates and 35 Assembly candidates from 35 and 265 contestants respectively.

Out of a total 9148 booths,1090 booths are located in urban areas while 8058 are in rural areas and over 60,000 polling personnel have been deployed.

He said out of 79,62,148 voters in this phase,40,30,283 are men, 39,31,015 are women and 850 are transgenders, spread over nine districts belonging to Western and Southern Odisha.

Dhal said about 55,882 voters are above 85 years and 1812 above 100 years while 1,07,823 are persons with disability (PwD).

He said about 2,11092 (2.67percent) of the total voters are in the age group of 18 to 19 years and 16,95,179 voters are in the age group of 20 to 29 years.

The five Lok Sabha seats going to polls on May 20 are Bargarh, Sundrgarh, Bolangir(in Western Odisha), Aska and Kandhamal(in South Odisha).

The CEO said ten general observers,three police observers and 5 expenditure observers have been appointed in the five Lok Sabha seats and ten obsrebers are posted in the 35 Assembly segments.

A maximum of 22 companies of CAPF were deployed in Maoist-infested Kandhamal district, and 22 companies of CAPF in the politically sensitive Ganjam district which witnessed pre-poll violence in which one BJP worker was killed and three others injured.

All the five Lok Sabha and 35 Assembly seats will witness a multi-cornered contest but the battle for the ballots will be mostly confined to three major political parties, the ruling BJD, the BJP and the Congress.

In the 2019 Lok Sabha elections, out of these five Lok Sabha seats, BJP won the Sundargarh,Bolangir and Baragarh seats and the BJD captured the Aska Lok Sabha seats.

The CEO said although the polling time will be 7 AM to 6 PM, in 936 booths the polling will be held between 7 AM to 5 PM and from 7 AM to 4 PM in 1689 booths due to security reasons.

In Sundargarh Lok Sabha seat, BJP sitting MP and former Union Minister Jual Oram who had won the seat six times in the past is pitted against former BJD Rajya Sabha MP and also former Indian Hockey captain Dillip Tirkey.

Similarly, in the Bolangir Lok Sabha seat sitting BJP Sangeeta Kumari Singdeo, royal family of Patnagarh who had won the seat four times in the past,will take on former Congress Minister Surendra Sigh Bhoi, a three-time MLA, who is in the fray as BJD candidate.

The Congress had fielded Manoj Mishtra, a debutant and Ollywood star for the seat.

BJD sitting MP Achyut Samant is seeking re-election in the Kandhamal Lok Sabha seat while in Bargarh and Aska Lok Sabha seats, both the BJP and the BJD respectively had fielded a new candidate, replacing their sitting MP.

In the Assembly seats, Chief Minister and BJD supremo Naveen Patnaik is contesting both his traditional Hinjili seat which he had won consecutively for five times in a row and Kantabanji assembly seat in Western Odisha presently held by Santish Sing Saluja of Congress.

Former Union Minister Dilip Ray (BJP) will take on Odisha Labour Minister Sarada Prasad Nayak, the sitting MLA in the Rourkela Assembly seat. Ray had also won the seat thrice in the past,as did Sarada Nayak.

Prominent among them in the Assembly election whose fate would be decided by the electorates on May 20 are Odisha Finance Minister Bikram Keshari Arukh, Parliamentary and Health and Family Welfare Minister Niranjan Pujari, Commerce and Transport Minister Tukuni Sahu, Forest and Environment Minister Pradeep Kumar Amat and Labour minister Sarada Nayak, all from the Biju Janata Dal.

Former Odisha minister K V Singdeo(BJP) and former Ministers Padmanav Behera and Sushant Singh from BJD will also try their electoral fortunes in the Assembly elections on May 20.

During high-voltage electioneering, the saffron brigade led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Union Home Minister Amit Shah, Party President J P Nadda and Chief Ministers of Assam, Chhatisgarh besides several other central leaders, not only addressed a series of election meetings but also held road shows targeting the Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik for outsourcing the government to bureaucrat, particularly a non-Odia and not implementing several central welfare schemes in the state.

These three leaders besides a host of other BJP leaders who also actively campaigned, emphatically stated that this time a BJP government will be formed in the state and a BJP Chief Minister will take the oath on June 10 at Bhubaneswar.

Shah even predicted that the BJP would win more than 15 of the 21 Lok Sabha seats and over 75 of the total 147 assembly seats to form a double-engine government.

On the other hand, the ruling BJD campaign mostly spearheaded by Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik and his trusted man bureaucrat turned BJD leader V Pandian had actively campaigned for the party candidate and announced that BJD will form the government for the record sixth time in a row.

The Congress electioneering witnessed a lacklustre one with its leader Rahul Gandhi and AICC President addressing one election meeting each in support of the party candidates.

The Congress leaders have come down heavily on both the NDA government at the centre and the BJD government at the centre accusing them of anti-farmer and ant youth and not fulfilling the promises made during the last elections.

Political pundits attributed that the presence of several turncoats and rebel candidates in both the Lok Sabha and Assembly elections might upset the winning prospects of candidates from all three major political parties BJP,the BJD and the Congress.

The BJP has promised that if voted to power in the state, the four gates of Sri Jagannath temple will be opened to the devotees that day its Chief Minister will take the oath and the probe report on the Ratna Bhandar of Jagannath temple will be made public within one month. It had also promised to return the money invested by the innocent people in the chit-fund and punished the chit-fund companies for looting the investors.

The BJP had also announced that the MSP for paddy will be raised to 3100 per quintal and the money will be credited within 48 hours of procurement besides the abolition of katni and chatni in the procurement

The ruling BJD had announced that 90 percent of the people of the state will not pay electricity bills from July as the government will waive the bills up to 100 units in a month and provide 50 per cent subsidy from 100 units to 150 units in a month.

The Congress has promised an unemployment allowance, of Rs 1 lakh to each woman in the poor family and the creation of two lakhs jobs for the youths in the state.